In the last decade, with the advent of the internet, a range of messaging applications have been developed. These include applications such as the Short Messaging System (SMS) which is part of cellular telephone standards and permits exchange of short text messages between cellular phone users, instant messaging such as Jabber and Skype which allow for exchange of text and files by internet users using a browser or an instant messaging client, and live chat systems such as LivePerson and Moxie which provide chat functionality in websites amongst other things.
While many of these messaging systems share similar functionality and use similar protocols they are generally not designed to communicate with each other and therefore all parties wishing to exchange messages must usually be using the same messaging system. This problem is amplified where, for example, one messaging system is stateless i.e. messages exchanged between parties are not associated together and the other is session oriented where messages are threaded and associated with one another.
Similarly messaging systems with similar functionality may even use the same messaging protocol but are unable to exchange messages due to the supplier of the system having implemented their system in a proprietary fashion which prevents exchange of messages with users of third party messaging systems.
Therefore there is a need for a system and methods for the exchange of messages between different messaging systems.